When I was asked to present at our School Library System's February meeting about the many online resources of the New York Public Library that I use, I decided I would focused on more of the capabilities of Symbaloo to assist with my presentation and to share with parents at a Family Enrichment Night that we were having at our school that same week.

Up to that point, I'd just enjoyed the features of creating simple webmixes, groupings of tiles, with each tile linking to a web site/URL. I have separate themes for pages such as School (including my most frequently used sites during the school day), E-Books and Audio books, Book Blogs, Tech Tools, Professional Learning Network (PLN) links, and Home To Do.

I wanted to explore different features that would allow me to create a webmix that would contain a linked Google Doc, with simplified directions that I had created on getting a New York Public Library Card (any New York State resident can get one without actually going to New York City--although it is wonderful if you can visit in person!). It was important to have the webmix accessible from our school's library OPALS page under Web Links to share with my SLS colleagues as well as for my students and colleagues. I wanted to link to one of my own webmixes that I had created for easy E-Book and Audiobook web link access.

I also wanted to embed the webmix in this blog. So, I'm finishing up what I started back in January!

Looking back at our OPALS library page features after the fact, I realize that I could have embedded it as part of a separate tab titled New York Public Library Resources, and I have done so now!

On this Symbaloo webmix I included tutorials for Symbaloo itself on the bottom line of tiles. I provided them as a feature for anyone who was interested in getting started using it.

One difficulty I have when going to a seminar is remembering how to access the information provided after the conference has concluded and I want to revisit the information. With visual links in one place, Symbaloo webmixes can solve that problem in a customized format. You have the ability to share publicly or with a select group using Symbaloo.

The Good E-Reader blog link was included to remind me to mention one of the best ways I've found to keep up with the latest on e-Books and e-Reader news. Michael Kozlowski provides great information!

I started using out using a regular Symbaloo account before I realized that there was an educator's version. I created the NYPL Resources page in the EDU version. The main difference between the two types is preset educational webmixes in the educator's version, and it is supposed to be easier to share webmixes and less advertising. The Symbaloo Gallery has a search feature for all public Symbaloo webmixes.

The educational Symbaloo has just recently come out with a new platform called Symbaloo Lesson Plans for customizing student learning with digitized lessons that have feedback statistics for the teacher. There is a Symbaloo certification program available. Both are something I would like to explore further.